The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt releases collection of early recordings

The Magnetic Fields‘ Stephin Merritt is set to release ‘Obscurities’, a 14-track collection of his early material on October 10.

‘Obscurities’ is made up of songs which were all released prior to 1999’s triple album, ’69 Love Songs’ and features five previously unreleased songs.

Three of the five come from The Song >From Venus, an unfinished sci-fi musical by Merritt and Daniel Handler, the US author who writes under the pen-name Lemony Snickett.

Five songs from The Magnetic Fields’ 7” vinyl singles are also included as well as ’69 Love Songs’ outtake ‘The Sun And The Sea And The Sky’. “This song didn’t go on ’69 Love Songs’ because it wasn’t actually about romantic love,” says Merritt.

‘You Are Not My Mother And I Want To Go Home’, a song written by Merritt for the audiobook version of Coraline by Neil Gaiman is also included.

The tracklisting for ‘Obscurities’ is:

‘Forever And A Day’ (previously unreleased)
‘Rats In The Garbage Of The Western World’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘I Don’t Believe You’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘Plant White Roses’ (Buffalo Rome)
‘Rot in the Sun’ (the 6ths)
‘The Sun And The Sea And The Sky’ (previously unreleased)
‘Yet Another Girl’ (the 6ths)
‘Scream (Till You Make The Scene)’ (previously unreleased)
‘The Song from Venus’ (previously unreleased)
‘Beach-A-Boop-Boop (The Magnetic Fields)
‘When I’m Not Looking, You’re Not There’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘Take Ecstasy With Me’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘When You’re Young And In Love’ (previously unreleased)
‘You Are Not My Mother And I Want to Go Home’ (The Gothic Archies)